A Place To Call Home
by Astroavis
Summary: Since the death of her mother when she was just a child, Karin had never felt the warmth of 'home'. When an unexpected situation brings Sakura into her life, however, Karin finds herself coming closer and closer to what she once lost.


_A/N: This fic is for Sakura Week 2018, Day 6: Acknowledgements._

* * *

Karin had only know the meaning of home for a brief period in her life.

She had grown up in a small shack with her mother, her father having been long gone by the time she was old enough to remember. Even though their home had a collapsing roof and a dirt floor and even though the winters were freezing and the summers burned her mind with the memories of the heat, that tiny shack had been her first memory of home.

She learned at a very young age that home wasn't having a bed to sleep in at night, it wasn't having a roof over her head, it wasn't a place to eat dinner, and it wasn't a shower to bathe… Home was a place where the heart resided.

After Karin lost her mother, she had never felt at home again.

Even after being rescued by Orochimaru and taken under his wing, she never felt at ease. Even when he had given her a bed and food and a roof above her head, Karin had never felt as if her heart was with her. Even after he had trained her and even after he had put her in charge of one of his bases, she never felt her soul at rest. And even when Sasuke had come and taken her on as a member of Team Hebi, later Team Taka…

Karin had never felt at home.

She had thought that the end of the Fourth Shinobi War would have been able to make way for her finally being able to find a place where she could call home but, no matter where she traveled, where she slept, or where she ate, she felt as if she was lost.

Despite feeling the lack of a connection in her heart and despite the restlessness in her soul, Karin had persevered. She knew that one day, somehow, she would finally find a place that she could truly call home.

For years following the conclusion of the war, Karin found herself jumping between all of Orochimaru's old hideaways. She released the prisoners within and nullified the dangerous experiments that could spell suffering for those in the recovering world. She cataloged and stored his old research and discontinued numerous studies that had fallen apart without proper guidance.

Karin buried more bodies than she could count.

She worked to clean up her old leader's mess while he went to play "good guy" with those Konoha ninja, her labor as unappreciated now as it had always been.

It took years to finally pick up the pieces and, when she found herself finished with her self imposed quest, she felt no closer to finding home. With nowhere else to go and nothing else to do, she settled down into one of Orochimaru's old bases, the Southern base that she had once been the warden of.

The island base was soothing in it's own way, the sound of the waves always a calming backdrop, and the facility was convenient enough. She found herself becoming familiar with the hideaway once again, the place almost feeling comfortable once she removed the cages that once held people and instead erected a number of open rooms.

To pass the time, she began to transcribe all of Orochimaru's old work, sometimes redoing experiments to determine if his research had been accurate.

No matter what Karin did, however, she never allowed any suffering to be caused by her hands. Even when the experiment appeared to hint at a development that could change the world, she refused to be an abuser. She refused to become one of the people that had made her suffering so much worse. One of the people that had killed her mother, who had ruined her childhood, who had taken her _home_ away from her.

And, for another handful of years, Karin secluded herself in her old base, desperately trying to find out where home could be while burying her emotions under the rigors of research.

* * *

Karin wasn't sure how long it had been since she last had guests, aside from that infuriating bastard Suigetsu or the surprisingly pleasant company of Jugo. So, when she felt the appearance of two chakra signatures on her island hideaway, her first reaction had been to prepare for battle.

At least until she recognized who they were.

When Karin exited her lab within her compound and opened the metal gates leading to the sandy beach of her island fortress, she openly gaped at Sasuke and the pink haired woman, Sakura, who had once saved her life.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" the redhead demanded, her tone coming out far more vicious than she had intended in her surprise.

"It's good to see you too, Karin," Sasuke replied with a quirked eyebrow, unimpressed.

"I'm glad to see you're well," Sakura greeted with a genuine smile, Karin pausing for a long moment to watch her closely for any signs of a taunt.

"Well, I'm not dead yet," the Uzumaki brushed off, "So? What do you want?"

Sakura and Sasuke shared an uneasy look before turning to face to redhead once again.

"Perhaps, uh… Perhaps it would be better spoken of inside? It's, well… It's a long story," Sakura explained vaguely, Karin arching an eyebrow before sighing and retreating back into her fortress, leaving the door open as an invitation.

* * *

Karin hadn't even been surprised. She felt as if she should have been but, after everything she had been through in her life, the request from the two Konoha ninja wasn't even a blip on her radar.

Although any other person would have been surprised by their request for her to artificially impregnate Sakura with Sasuke's donation.

Karin hadn't been surprised by Sasuke's admitting to his asexuality, that particular information having been long since realized by the redhead. Although she could admit that she had been surprised to learn that Sakura was gay.

If anything, it better explained why Sasuke and Sakura wanted to artificially impregnate the pink haired woman instead of betraying who they were to attempt to "further the Uchiha clan" as Sasuke had put it.

She could understand why they wanted to come to her. Such an agreement would have been unheard of in an uptight village such as Konoha. If anyone found out about their arrangement, it was likely they would be judged for not just doing it the "right" way. Karin couldn't blame them for wanting their secrecy.

Although she did disagree with the notion that Sasuke had to carry on his lineage in the first place. Despite her rather vocal opinion, Sakura and Sasuke had already made up their minds. Sasuke wanted to fulfill his obligation, Sakura wanted the child she could never have on her own, and they both cared enough about each other to help the other accomplish their dream.

Karin could respect that level of love, even if a part of her was jealous over the fact she didn't have that. The fact she had never had that. So she agreed to help.

It took a week for her to not only gather the knowledge she needed to perform the procedure but for Sakura to ovulate. Sakura became a common face around her lab, the konoha kunoichi becoming an integral force in helping Karin understand and learn the procedure. She had been confused by why Sakura, the world's greatest medical ninja, didn't do it herself and, when she had asked, she had been surprised by her answer.

"I've always known I wanted to be a mother. But I've also always known I was gay. I wanted to be the one to do the procedure at first but, when I realized how intimate it would be with just the two of us… Well, I became uncomfortable. We both became uncomfortable. Sasuke suggested you might be willing to help and I felt much better knowing that a woman with medical skills could be here to be the intermediary."

Karin didn't bring it up again and Sakura continued to be a common sight around her laboratory, the pink haired woman not only helping her with the future procedure but admiring the research projects that she had in her work space. Her assistance became valuable, especially for a number of projects that Karin struggled with on her own. And her opinion became one that Karin looked forward to hearing.

Sakura one day commented that she could always appreciate a well controlled experiment but, more than that, that she appreciated the fact that Karin refused to exchange suffering for knowledge. That she didn't follow in Orochimaru's footsteps despite how easy it could have been with his research and how helpful the results of the studies could have been.

Karin told her that the gain wouldn't have been worth it if even one person had to be in pain because of it. That the improvement of the lives of hundreds, even thousands, wasn't worth even one person having to suffer.

Sakura had given her a look that told Karin she had spoken too much, that she had revealed too much, and she brushed her off for the rest of the day.

That next morning, Karin gathered Sasuke's donation and implanted it into Sakura, the procedure itself taking less than ten minutes in its entirety. It took another week for Sakura to come forward and inform them that the implant had taken and that she was pregnant.

Karin had expected they would immediately depart. Especially when Sasuke declared that he wanted to leave, citing that he was becoming stir crazy and that spending so much time in one of Orochimaru's old lairs was becoming too much for him. What she hadn't expected was Sakura telling him that she wanted to stay behind to help her with one of her more complicated experiments.

No one had ever wanted to stay with her before. Not even Jugo, the gentle giant he was, had ever lingered for more than a few days. The fact that Sakura wanted to stay behind to help with her research, especially now that she was pregnant, blew her mind.

Karin felt a flicker in her heart and promptly ignored it.

When the redhead agreed to allow Sakura to stay, Sasuke had smiled and wished them the best of luck before departing.

* * *

Karin was surprised by how quickly they fell into an easy friendship. Without Sasuke's lingering, anxious energy, the two women had formed an immediate bond through the experiments they worked on together. She found that Sakura was a skilled partner and a dedicated scientist and the experiments that she had been working on, especially the ones she struggled to perform with just her, had begun to produce real results.

More than that… Karin began to wonder if Sakura had begun to flirt with her.

Sakura would go out of her way to stand as close to her as she could when they spent time together, she took every opportunity to reach out and touch her, and she had been easy to find compliments to give. Her kindness had thrown her off guard yet made her feel warm inside.

Karin wondered if she was just being nice.

Sakura's kindness was one that Karin rewarded by finally presenting her friend with one of the best living spaces in the facility: the room that Kabuto had once occupied. Karin kept Orochimaru's old room for herself, the space already well lived in despite still not feeling like a home.

It took her a while to get used to knowing that another soul was just a wall away, the redhead finding the sensation of company so out of the ordinary that it took days to finally sleep properly once again.

She should have been more wary about having company so close and should have been prepared for the day when Sakura accidentally barged into her room while she was changing.

She had immediately apologized and fled the room but not before Karin had noticed her getting a good look at the scars from bites on her arms and chest. She had been horrified that Sakura had caught her in such a vulnerable moment but had been even more humiliated by knowing that she had seen the scars she normally kept so carefully hidden.

Their relationship had been strained for days, the unspoken weight of Sakura's discovery hanging over them both. The growing tension come to a head when Sakura finally addressed the strain between them and asked about the scars.

Karin snapped.

"Not everyone can be miracle healers like you!" she screamed, jabbing an accusing finger at her.

Sakura jumped at the sudden outburst but remained strong, frowning deeply but still listening closely.

"Some people suffer because of their healing powers! Some people suffer because of what their born with! Some people are bled dry, like me and my mom and-!" Karin shrieked before a sob cut off her words.

She tried to gather the breath she needed to tell Sakura to _go fuck herself_ but she found that it instead fueled her next cry of anguish. She hid her face in her hands, humiliated, but before she could flee, she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her.

Karin collapsed into Sakura's arms as she cried, mourning for her dead mother, for her lost childhood, for the fact she had never felt at home since she was just a girl… Sakura held her tightly as she finally released her pent up suffering, the two slipping to the floor so she could pull her close.

As she sobbed, her lungs aching and her eyes burning from the force of her sorrow, she thought of how warm and soft Sakura was.

No one had held her when she cried since she was a child...

* * *

After Karin's cathartic yet humiliating release, Sakura had left her alone about the subject for months. As Sakura's stomach slowly grew in size, their relationship slowly became more intimate.

When Sakura finally brought up the subject of her scars once again, it was an offer to heal them.

"No, I don't want you to fix them. They may be hideous but they're a part of who I am," Karin had answered firmly.

"I don't think they are," Sakura had replied, her eyebrows furrowed.

Karin immediately bristled at the comment, her tone harsh as she shot back, "You don't get to decide what is and isn't a part of someone's life!"

"No, that's not it… I don't think they're hideous," Sakura corrected, stunning Karin into silence, "I'm just worried that they're bad reminders from the past and I wanted to offer to take them away. I don't want you to feel bad when you see them because I care about you…"

It took Karin longer than she would ever care to admit to stutter out, "I-it's fine. It doesn't matter."

She turned on her heel and fled farther into the hideout, a furious blush painted across her cheeks as she ran from the obvious display and declaration of affection.

The next day, Karin wore a tank top for the first time since she was a child. Her scars were proud on her shoulders and neck and, despite her anxiety, Sakura smiled at her when she saw. A supportive gesture followed by an offer to go out to the beach of the island to swim and fight off the oppressive summer heat.

Karin appreciated the deflection away from her scars. More than anything, Sakura appreciated her digging a hole for her to rest her growing stomach in.

When the Uzumaki had laughed at her, asking what on earth she was doing, Sakura had simply replied with, "Do you know how long it's been since I got to lay down on my stomach!?"

* * *

As the days went on, and as Sakura continued to remain with her, Karin began to wake up feeling... warm.

The damp walls and the cold floors seemed so much more welcoming than they ever had. The fortress that once seemed so dark and moldy and filthy suddenly felt good to wake up in knowing that Sakura was just a room away. She began to wake up feeling excited for the day of science and easy friendship.

With every passing day, Sakura's belly grew larger and larger. She began to need help standing, often reaching out for Karin's hand when she needed to rise to her feet. Karin enjoyed the touching and being close to her, always finding some form of satisfaction in being so near to her.

She even began to feel a sense of satisfaction when she left the island to go aquire Sakura the strange foods she craved during her pregnancy.

When Sakura began to crave even more than that, one day admitting to Karin that she was beginning to feel starved of physical affection, Karin had shyly offered herself as a source of closeness. She refused to admit that she too had been starved for affection, albeit for a much longer time.

The first night they slept in the same bed together, Karin's heart had been racing so quickly that she hadn't slept for a minute. The second night, her exhaustion had allowed her to collapse in Sakura's arms. The third night, they were happily nestled against one another, wrapped up in each others embrace.

When Karin woke up after having spent the night in Sakura's arms, she felt bright inside. She felt sated in a way she had never felt before.

It almost felt like…

* * *

There had only been one time in her life that Karin had ever worried about Sakura and one time only.

Although there were a number of benefits to living on an island, the foremost being that they were so secluded, there were a number of downfalls as well. The most prevalent at that time being that, when the typhoon season came, their house became very dangerous.

Karin had always dealt with the typhoons by using her clan's specialty to form seals to protect the hideaway. When she had seen the storm clouds approaching from the horizon, she had spent the day redoing her wards and making sure that the base would be safe during the harsh winds and flooding waters.

In her distraction, she had missed an old and worn seal from last year that, upon being put under the strain of the oncoming typhoon, had shattered.

Karin had been in their lab working on some last minute adjustments to their most recent experiment when what sounded like a rock slide had startled her. She had sprinted to where the noise had come from and, when she discovered it was the bedroom that her and Sakura shared, the room where Sakura had been folding laundry just minutes earlier, she had felt her heart bottom out into her stomach.

"No!" Karin screamed, rushing to the pile of rubble that stood where the door to their bedroom once had.

As her fingers uselessly pawed at the boulders, unable to move them, she berated herself. It was her fault this had happened. It was because she had missed one of her wards that this part of their home had collapsed. It was her fault Sakura was dead.

As Karin clawed at the stones, her fingernails cracking and breaking in her desperation, the sound of the howling wind sneaking in from the collapsed room just a few feet away tore at her soul.

It was her fault, her fault, her fault…

Karin felt the spike in energy before she watched as the rocks exploded outward near her, making way for the being within. She watched, tears streaming from the corners of her wide eyes, as Sakura emerged from the rubble, unharmed. A scowl was painted across her face but it was an expression of agitation as opposed to pain.

"Sakura…" Karin whimpered, drawing the attention of the Leaf kunoichi who looked over at her curiously.

When Sakura spotted her bloodied fingertips, her expression melted into one of concern. Before she could speak, Karin rocketed forward, flying into her arms and wrapping her up in her embrace. Her scarlet gaze flicked across her form, searching for wounds, before she reached out and grasped Sakura's face in her hands.

Karin released a cry of relief, another tear slipping free from her eyes, before she surged forward and kissed her.

Despite her surprise, Sakura immediately returned her kiss, her arms wrapping so tightly around the redhead that she felt as if they were the only things keeping her together in that moment. Their lips moved against one anothers desperately, Karin's hands fisting in Sakura's shirt and Sakura's arms tightly wrapping around her.

Karin was so relieved, she was so happy, so was so _grateful_ that Sakura was okay.

Sakura had become such an integral part of her life, whether they shared a laboratory or a bed. She had become the person that she looked forward to spending her days with. She had come to be such a precious person that Karin could no longer imagine a life without her.

As she kissed her for all she was worth, pouring all of her desperation and affection into the press of lips, Karin realized that she had fallen in love with her.

When their frantic kiss broke, the only sound between them being their gasps for breath and the rumble of the storm outside, Karin had opened her eyes to gaze into Sakura's viridian orbs.

"I love you," Karin blurted, her hands still desperately clinging to Sakura as if she was frightened she would disappear from her arms, her bleeding fingertips staining her clothes.

Sakura smiled, leaning down to press their lips together once again.

"I love you too," she confessed, unwilling to loosen her arms wrapped so tightly around the redhead.

* * *

When Sakura finally gave birth, Karin was at her side the entire time. She was there not only to help deliver her baby but to be her emotional support as her lover.

The process, despite Sakura being so confident, had absolutely terrified Karin. She was so frightened that she would lose Sakura, like she almost had once before, but she was also terrified of losing the babe within her belly that she had fallen in love with as well.

Karin couldn't bear the thought of losing either of them, the red haired kunoichi having even prepared numerous vials of her own blood to help them recover if the need ever arose.

When Sakura finally delivered the tiny babe, and when the baby girl's cry had echoed in the air of their bedroom, Karin's heart had swelled in her chest. She carefully cleaned off the baby girl – they were a _girl_ \- before handing her lover's child to her.

She felt so close yet so far away as she watched Sakura cradle her dark haired baby. She felt like she was an intruder in the precious moment so, when Sakura's eyes fell upon her, she felt pinned.

"Do you want to hold her?" Sakura breathlessly asked, Karin's mouth popping open in shock.

All she could find in her to ask was "Why?"

"Well, I… If you want, that is… I want you to be her mother too."

When Karin settled on the bed next to Sakura, the two wrapped around their newborn daughter, she began to cry with joy.

* * *

Following the birth of their daughter Sarada, Sakura convinced Karin to return to Konoha with her. How she had done so still evaded the redhead but she soon found herself in the Village Hidden in the Leaves and feeling more like an outsider than she ever had in her life.

Everyone was blown away by the fact that her and Sakura were together, Sakura's friends and family even more confused and stunned by the fact that her and Karin were both the mothers of a child who very much appeared to be an Uchiha. Even with their confusion and curiosity, they were all too frightened to bring it up. No one wanted to upset Sakura, the strongest kunoichi on the face of the planet even postpartum.

Even more than that, everyone had been overwhelmingly curious about Karin herself. Their eyes clung to her when she traveled through the village hand in hand with Sakura, their gazes lingering especially long on the scars on her arms and chest which she no longer went out of her way to hide.

Sakura had helped her find the inner strength to finally stop hiding who she was and Karin refused to be cowed by these goody Konoha ninja. She retained this hardened exterior while in the village until a visit from Konoha's Hokage had taken her by surprise.

Karin remembered Naruto from when they had first met following her near death at Sasuke's hands. The blond had carried her back into their village after Sakura had saved her life and she would never be able to forget the sensation of his chakra, so much like warm sunlight. She had made sure to maintain a cordial relationship with the man, especially considering he was the leader of the village she now lived in.

When he had confidently approached her, however, and declared that they were brother and sister, Karin's professional demeanor had snapped.

"If anything, we're probably third cousins or something, you idiot!" she berated, glaring at the overly tall blond who had dominated her and Sakura's living room.

"I don't care! You're an Uzumaki like me! That makes us family! And you're Sakura's wife too, so that makes you my sister!" Naruto asserted, his immediate acceptance of her making her eyes water.

Karin tried to hide her sniffling behind her hand, unable to stop the sudden overwhelmed tears. Naruto wrapped her up in his embrace, his arms feeling like she was basking in sunlight. For the second time in such a short time, she found herself crying in someone's arms. But not just anyone's arms… the arms of her brother.

Karin hadn't had a family since before her mother died…

* * *

Karin slowly stirred from sleep, her heavy eyelids drifting open once beams from the rising sun made their way into her bedroom. She sighed, her eyes sliding shut once again, as her arms wrapped more tightly around her wife.

Sakura didn't react at all, still very much asleep. The redhead hummed softly as she willed herself not to fall back asleep, instead deigning to try to wake her spouse by pressing a few gentle kisses to her neck and shoulder.

When she didn't even stir, her attempt at waking her a lost cause from the start, Karin had smiled and shook her head. She slowly removed herself from her wife's embrace, slipping out of their shared bed to head into the kitchen.

The Uzumaki tapped at the buttons on their coffee maker, setting up the machine to brew a fresh pot, before yawning and heading back towards her bedroom. Instead of heading back into her and her wife's room, she instead opened a door next to theirs.

Stepping inside, she gently pulled back a mess of blankets to reveal a dark haired girl hidden in the folds of the cloth.

"Wake up, sunshine," Karin hummed, reaching down to run her fingers through her daughter's hair.

"Is it already time to wake up, mom?" Sarada groaned into her pillows, curling up into an even tighter ball.

Karin smiled, leaning down to press a kiss to her hairline. "Ten more minutes."

Sarada smiled before snuggling back up to her pillow, falling back asleep not even a moment later. Karin chuckled under her breath as she returned the blankets around her daughter's shoulders, thinking that she would give her thirty more minutes just for being so cute. After all, her classes at the academy didn't start for a couple hours. She could use the extra sleep.

The Uzumaki couldn't shake the soft smile from her face as she went to pour herself a cup of coffee. Cradling the warm mug in her hands, she opened the door to their patio, stepping out into the cool morning air to watch the sunrise. As she watched the sun slowly ascend into the sky, the sounds of morning birds and waking neighbors meeting her ears, she considered how far she had come.

She had once been alone, living by herself in that lair hidden away in the island, but now she had so many people at her side. She had a wife, a daughter, a brother, and a village. She had been acknowledged by not just her wife but by all of the people of Konoha. Despite their apprehension at first, and Karin's own confrontational attitude, they all now looked upon her as a cherished friend and a kunoichi of the leaf.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of Sakura's arms looping around her from behind, her wife curling up against her back and wrapping them both up in the blanket from their bed.

"'Morning," Sakura hummed against her shoulder, still very much asleep, as she pressed a kiss to the revealed skin there.

"Good morning," Karin returned with a smile, lacing the fingers of her free hand through Sakura's hand hidden beneath their comforter.

"That smells good," Sakura commented after a long, comfortable silence.

"I made enough for two."

"Let me have yours…"

Karin laughed aloud. "You couldn't drink mine if you wanted. You can't stand your coffee black. Go in and mix your sugar water, hummingbird."

Sakura groaned as she nuzzled Karin's shoulder, snuggling up closer to her. "In a minute…"

Karin smiled, holding her hand more tightly as they basked in each others' warmth. It was a long minute before Sakura spoke.

"Sasuke is coming to visit today, right?"

"That's today. He should be here by nightfall," Karin clarified, taking a slow sip from her coffee.

"Hmm. Sarada will enjoy seeing him again. It's been so long," Sakura commented.

"She will…" Karin smiled. "I'm still impressed by her maturity. She was so accepting when we told her the truth."

"We _are_ her mothers," Sakura reminded, Karin laughing in amusement.

"True," she easily agreed.

Sakura sighed softly before pulling away from the redhead, taking the blanket with her. "I'm going to go make my hummingbird water."

"You do that," Karin teased lightly, enjoying the feeling of the cool morning air against her bare skin.

Sakura peeked around her shoulder, the redhead leaning down and pressing a kiss to her lips. They both shared a gentle smile, one that only people who had been in love for so long could share, before Sakura padded back into their house.

Karin looked back out at the village around her, slowly being lit up in shades of red and gold. She hummed thoughtfully, the corner of her lip quirking up before she took a sip of her coffee.

For the first time in so many years… She was finally _home._


End file.
